Iraq planning to prosecute prison torture suspects: rights officials News
Iraq planning to prosecute prison torture suspects: rights officials

[JURIST] Officials for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry have said that they plan to prosecute those suspected of torturing inmates of the country's prison system, according to a Wednesday report [AFP report]. The country signed on to the UN's Convention Against Torture [text] on Sunday, but has not yet explicitly prohibited the practice. Prosecutors say they will find a way to use existing laws to charge offenders. The officials say the have documented dozens of cases of torture in Iraqi-run detention facilities, and that United Nations Special Investigator on Torture Manfred Nowak [UN materials], who has voiced grave concern over conditions in the country [BBC report], plans to visit Iraq in October. In 2005 Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] issued a report [HRW materials, press release] citing numerous incidents of torture and prisoner abuse in the country since the 2003 US invasion.

In November 2005 US troops found 173 prisoners [JURIST report], many abused, in a secret bunker run by the Interior Ministry. Earlier that year, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that Iraq's detention practices may violate international law and expressed concern [JURIST report] over the failure of Coalition forces to publish the results of their investigation into the torture allegations. In December 2005 Iraq Interior Minister Bayan Jabr [CBS profile] fired [JURIST report] Nouri al-Nouri, the country's senior inspector handling human rights issues, in connection with a torture scandal involving dozens of prisoners at a Baghdad prison. Jabr himself has been accused of running secret prisons [JURIST report] and controlling death squads, charges he has downplayed or denied [JURIST report].

THIS DAY @ LAW

Phillip III of Spain expels Muslim converts to Christianity

Phillip III of Spain began the expulsion of the country's "Morisco" (Muslims who converted to Christianity and their descendants) population on April 9, 1609, based on the Crown's fears that the Morisco population retained Muslim beliefs. Hundreds of thousands of Moriscos would be expelled from the country from 1609-1614. The expulsions took place just over 100 years after Spain's Jewish population was expelled in 1492. Learn more about the expulsion of the Moriscos.

Senate approves purchase of Alaska

On April 9, 1867, the U.S. Senate voted to ratify the Treaty with Russia for the Purchase of Alaska and thereby approve the purchase of the territory from Russia for $7.2 million. Initially, the purchase was made to keep Alaska away from the British. It was politically unpopular with many Americans who denounced it is "Seward's Folly", after U.S. Secretary of State William Seward, who had lobbied for the purchase. Seward was later vindicated by the discovery of gold and oil in Alaska.

Learn more about the Alaska Purchase from the U.S. State Department.

Last beheading in England

On April 9, 1747, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, became the last man to be beheaded in England when he was executed on Tower Hill for his part in the Jacobite rising of 1745. Learn more about the legal history and practice of beheading.